Google-Chrome

The first purported screenshots of Google's Chrome OS have leaked, courtesy of a snap-happy Acer parts supplier and a momentarily careless Google demo rep. Apparently taken at the end of a demonstration of Chrome OS for Acer, installing the software in just 10 minutes on a formerly Vista Acer Extensa 4620Z laptop, even this early build of the platform showed its speed credentials: a desktop to desktop reboot in around 25 seconds.

UPDATE: The screenshots are fake, as we suspected might be the case. Just a video designer hoping to drum up business. 7/9/2009

Google have released the latest version of their Chrome browser, v2, including stable builds of the new features added in March's beta. Among the most obvious changes are a full-screen mode - triggered by hitting F11 - and a form autofill tool, which remembers common details such as name, address and phone number and automatically populates those fields in online shopping sites and registration forms.

Google's Chrome browser turned a lot of heads when it first launched back in September 2008, and the search giant surprised even more people by dropping the beta tag from the browser only a few months later. Now there's news of a new version of Chrome, still free and back with beta status, but reportedly between 25- and 35-percent faster than previously, depending on benchmarking. There are also new features like side-by-side tab views and autoscrolling.

Rumors that Google is developing its own OS have once again been ignited, as traffic-measuring experts Net Applications revealed that one-third of visitors from Google computers are running computers that block recognition of their platform. According to Net Applications, this is not an incidental situation: Google would have to be purposefully choosing to mask the identity of their computers' OS.

Netbooks returned to the top of the page this week, as Dell finally confirmed their first entrance to the budget ultraportable market. The specs of the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 may not be all that surprising - given both the regular leaking pre-announcement and the fact that all of these machines are pretty similar - but the brand name will likely make it the netbook to beat. In a way it's a shame, because there are far more exciting devices - such as the Raon Digital Everun Note - that, by virtue of being less well known, will struggle to make themselves heard.

Google's Chrome is still gathering momentum - a quick glance at our stats over the last 72hrs show that 6-percent of visitors are using the new browser - but it's not without its issues. SlashGear readers have been sharing their experiences here, and reporting everything from scrolling problems through Facebook issues and full-on crashes. Perhaps more concerning, though, were the Terms of Service, which seemed to give Google permission to use your content as it sees fit. Now Google have admitted that they made a mistake.

News of Google's Chrome browser may have slipped out early on Monday, but that didn't stop the company having the proper launch event at the Googleplex on Tuesday. That presentation saw Google developers walk through the functionality of Chrome and what makes it particularly special; it also gave them an opportunity to announce Chromium, which is the open-source project side of the browser.

After several hours running Chrome and exploring its functionality, hands-on reports are coming in from all over the web. As you might expect for the first release of beta software - even software Google claim has been in development for two years and tested thoroughly at the Googleplex - there are various bug sightings and issues. Multiple SlashGear readers are finding that vertical scrolling, particularly on notebook touchpads, is presenting some problems, with the most common complaint being an inability to scroll back up the page.

Check out the video walk-though of the Google Chrome browser after the cut

Google's Chrome browser is now available for download. The Chrome site now has details of the browser's functionality, including video interviews with the development team and video demos of each major feature. However this first beta release is only available for Windows XP and Vista; Mac and Linux owners will have to wait.

Google have already admitted that they pulled the trigger a little early on the Chrome announcement yesterday; it was meant to hit the headlines today, in fact. As of writing, the www.google.com/chrome site still isn't live, which means all we have to go on is the Chrome comic and some background understanding of Google's webapp offerings.

Chrome is Google's next step toward making webapps behave - or users treat them - more like traditional desktop apps. Address bar and window-free apps are just the surface gloss; what's key to Chrome's likely success is its native inclusion of Google Gears and the custom JavaScript app, V8, that the company has had a special team working on.